cravenmoore said:
I took the day off and was at the state of the union as well and anyone who was there could tell you no one on campus, other than the team itself, cares about football, it's success, the need to grow it and it's facilities. Further, sold out games, heck the game this weekend, and every possible upside fans are seeing are either being completely ignored, purposely hidden or considered outside of the new presidents purview. I am extremely disappointed to say the least...a huge outside effort will need to commence immediately (yes without involvement from the university) to force the issue on the university. As I think about it, there have probably been near zero letters written directly to the president about our desire to grow this thing...otherwise she would have mentioned it. That isn't her problem....that's ours and probably what we deserve. How dare we assume a new president will 'get it'. They've never gotten it....but our non ability to make sure it's important to the most important new person on campus is our own fault. It became evidently clear to me today in that meeting that we as fans are as much to blame as anyone. The school newspaper has a huge article today on a new PUB and no mention of Gateway. Why would the newspaper assume a new PUB and the Gateway are overly different. They did because the student body council has made the PUB a priority....meanwhile the the most important football project was ignored. Our Spokesman beat writer, while good, has focused only on game results, which based on what I didn't hear today, are completely irrelevant. If we want something done, we will have to make it ridiculously clear that we really want that. 200 people need to write and demand the new president recognize the strongest marketing the university has is sold out and needs attention. It's time to get off our collective asses folks....that's what I heard today. Yay for Ewu if we win....I'm sure there will be cool pictures and a story in the paper but it won't matter to the new president and her executive staff unless we all make it impossible to ignore. Letter writing, personal visits, and most importantly a deeply investigated front page story must happen soon because whatever you think will or can happen to grow our team, facility and keep coach in town is not a priority on campus. Winning championships won't help....our ability to mobilize may.
Great post, if not a little over the top. I believe that a project like this will have to be driven from students and alums. Ultimately, if students don't care about renovating Roos Field it will never happen. The Rec Center was built because the students wanted it and endorsed it. The PUB Renovation is getting publicity because it's being driven by the student council, but even that was voted down last Spring (they will vote again in Feb from what I understand).
I believe that the administration's, Board of Trustees, etc. stance on this project from the beginning has been "Sure, you can have your Gateway Project, as long as it doesn't cost us anything and you don't ask for our support in any way, shape, or form". It's like athletics, to a certain extent, is seen by academia as something alien to the University...something external. I know Dr. A was supportive, but I'm not sure about this new president. A major part of a University President's role is to raise money...from what I have heard so far, I doubt very much that athletics is high on her list of priorities.
So my message to current students is that if you want the stadium fixed, then you need to convince the student council, and ultimately, the University administration that this is something that's important. Alums should do the same, but really the only way we can impact that is through donating money (or choosing not to).
I think this is what needs to happen before anything with the stadium will be done.
1.) Obviously, we need to continue winning. That, I think involves retaining the current staff, which could be challenging.
2.) We need to continue to sell out every game. This is tied into #1, but getting sellouts every game shows demand.
3.) EAA needs to grow. Won't happen without continuing points #1 and #2.
4.) Alums and students will have to demand that something is done with the stadium. If you want to see something happen, make your voice heard. Silence=compliance.
I am resigned to the fact that this is going to be an extremely slow process, but modest improvements, even if it's not on something on the scale of Gateway are not impossible. Just get something permanent on the east side of the stadium so that we can get more people to games and don't have to look at that eyesore anymore. If we could renovate the stadium in 2004 with a fraction of the support we have now, why is it impossible now? We can get a game on ESPN, sell out every game, win basically every game we play in, but getting any kind of traction with respect to improving the stadium is just impossible? It's the first people see when they come on campus from Washington Street! Wake up people!
You can't tell me that an erector-set type grandstand like they have at Sac State would be too cost prohibitive. I'd be happy with something like that at this point. Seriously. I'm as big a fan as it out there, and probably a huge homer, too, but this situation has gotten frustrating even for me. I imagine others feel the same.
hno: :lol:
